One
Looooong PassNASA Drops in on the Big Game
|
|
|
Animated
GIF of the Superzoom
Refresh
your browser to replay animation.
|
|
View
Reporter's Package | View
Superzoom Movie (7.58 MB)
Big
game, big planet. With thousands of people and millions of eyes descending on
Houston, Texas this Sunday, the space agency descends on Reliant Stadium in a
way that only NASA can.
| | |
Item
1 - Click on image to enlarge | | The
journey starts out in space, with most of the Earth swathed in darkness.
| | |
Item
2 - Click on image to enlarge | | Then
our camera starts moving into the dawning sunlight, and our plunge begins.
| | |
Item
3 - Click on image to enlarge | | With
the nimble fingers of an elite computer science team piloting our controls, we
effortlessly fly through a series of images collected by satellites in NASAs
Earth Observing fleet.
| | |
Item
4 - Click on image to enlarge | |
In seconds the edges of the Earth disappear and details of the American continent
begin to resolve.
| | |
Item
5 - Click on image to enlarge | | Halfway
down we begin to see details in the coastline along the southern part of the country;
moments later we can see distinct traces of waterways and natural features on
land.
| | |
Item
6 - Click on image to enlarge | | As
we enter Houston airspace, we see its huge metropolitan area stretching out across
the plains of Texas. Then, finally, we begin to resolve our destination: Reliant
Stadium.
| | |
Item
7 - Click on image to enlarge | | In
the final moments we dive inside the open roof of the arena, seeing thousands
of cheering football fans filling the stands and end zones decorated with the
logos of the two competing teams.
| |
Item
8 - no enlarge available | Stills
from Reporter's Package - No high res available | Click
here for TEXT of Reporter's Package - Getting to the Game - Michael Starobin reporting
| |
|
Item
9 | Reporter's
Package - Click on image to view package. | THE
ART OF SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION
Indeed, it is an art. The zoom from space into Houstons Reliant Stadium
could only be done by a space faring organization, with instruments already on
orbit and a team of experts able to receive and manage the data those devices
send down. This zoom is not a movie, at least not in the conventional sense. It
is a synthesis of satellite data setspictures generated from by the careful
manipulation of scientific data collected by powerful space based observatories.
And they are powerful. The satellites and instruments NASA used to create these
scenes may be football spectators today, but ordinarily the space agencys
remarkable Earth Observing fleet works tirelessly to gather information about
the health and changing attributes of our home planet. With land imagers, cloud
analyzers, reflectometers, spectroradiometers, and many more devices, NASA can
preserve and protect the Earth by providing imperative information about it.
But about that zoom
| | |
Item
10 |
Click
on image above to view zoom out from Reliant Stadium
to space. (Note: 7.6 MB)
|
Specifically
the rush from space uses ten layers of data. They include:
- MODIS
1 km land surface reflectance (Blue Marble)
- MODIS
clouds (Blue Marble)
- USGS
GTOPO-30 topography (Landsat)
- Mountain
Top bathymetry for ocean texture
- MODIS
250m reflectance
- Landsat-7
15-meter United States mosaic
- IKONOS
1m image
- Quickbird
0.6m image
- Starfield
based on the Hipparcos Star Catalog
- Field
and stadium stands generated using ground-based photo and seating chart references
Several
of the satellites that collected this data belong to NASA.
They include Terra and Aqua, which each maintain their own
MODIS instrument that catalogues the Earths surface
colors; and Landsat-7, which archives and catalogues surface
land features. IKONOS and Quickbird are commercial spacecraft,
owned by the corporations Space Imaging and Digital Globe
respectively. NASA periodically acquires data from these satellites
for a variety of research and visualization purposes. In this
sequence they provided the images used to depict the closest
points to the ground.
The Hipparcos Star Catalog is an immense archive of heavens,
showing thousands of stars in their proper context and at
the correct brightness. It is used in a myriad of visual products
and for scientific research.
Finally,
a series of ground based photos and seating chart reference
materials helped the visualization team show the arena in
vibrant detail. CBS Television and the National Football League
provided designs and logos for accurate depiction of the field.
In the creation of this sequence many of the layers needed
to be carefully rectified, or matched together
so that their edges intersected seamlessly. Then the artists
applied extensive and detailed attention to the precise colors
in each data set, enhancing the seamless nature of the flight
path. Near the bottom, as the scene appears to be closing
in on the stadium, the artists added a shadow to the interior
of the field based on data from the Quickbird image, enhancing
the feeling of actual travel through real space.
NASA
is committed to the long-term study of the Earth via remote sensing, the study
of the Earth from a distance. NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is dedicated to
understanding the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced
changes on the global environment.
Special
thanks to: Digital Globe and Space Imaging for their kind assistance in
this exciting project.
DIGITAL
GLOBE
Chuck Herring cherring@digitalglobe.com Amy
Opperman aopperman@digitalglobe.com
SPACE
IMAGING
Mark Brender MBrender@spaceimaging.com Kerri-Ann
Rose KRose@spaceimaging.com Special
thanks also to CBS Sports and the National Football League for their
participation and cooperation in this project. ----------------------
The
Official Reproduction Guidelines for use of NASA images and
emblems
This
multimedia project is the work of a dedicated team of researchers, animators,
and media specialists. A detailed companion video to this web site is available
from NASA-TV. Below are a list of agencies, departments, and researchers who provided
expertise and data for this production:
NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center
Television Production NASA-TV/GSFC
Visualizations by GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio
Content Preparation & Project Production:
Michael Starobin
Visualization development:
GSFC/SVS
GSFC Public Affairs Contact:
Wade Sisler
Web Content Manager:
Lynn Jenner
Back
to Top |